Lazy Sunday

I’ve done little today other than read. Hours spent curled up in a chair with a book and a coffee near at hand. Such a delight, this. Early this afternoon I finished up Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and am giving some thought now to the next selection. I’ve narrowed the possibilities down to two, both revolutionary in nature: Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason, or John Lee Anderson’s biography of Che Guevara. Most likely I’ll spend a little more time browsing the bookcases here at home to see if anything else catches my eye. While I would be happy with either of the two finalists, I rather enjoy a book leaping off the shelf and saying “READ ME!” Not literally, of course. If such was the case, that particular volume would summarily be flung from the window at the end of a broom.

Saturday Morning Update

It’s a quiet Saturday morning here in Norfolk. Autumn, my favorite time of the year, is in full swing. The dogwood outside my study, backlit by the rising sun, glows a brilliant red, with green pines beyond creating a delightful contrast. Change is in the air. The weather is forecast to be mild today with a chance of rain later on. While it would be an almost ideal day to get out on a day trip/photo expedition, pager duty with work will unhappily keep me close to home. While I need to go to the office today to work on a few things beginning to pile up on my desk, I’m thinking that I will forego that and enjoy the time here at home. Such free time is a treat of sorts as I’ve worked so many weekends this year.

So much time as passed since I last posted regular entries on here that I don’t quite know where, nor how, to resume the conversation. And I’m equally unsure how blogging fell by the wayside the way it did. I suspect a combination of factors was responsible. Shifting interests, lack of time, and just plain ol’ laziness. As is often the case, I tend to fall headlong into such endeavors until I’m forced to take a break due to sheer exhaustion. Photography captured my attention for a while, but has since been placed on the backburner until I‘m inspired again to pick up the camera. Probably the same this is true with my blogging habits. During my time away from here, I have noticed a sort of inverse relationship between blogging and journal keeping. While my posts here all but ceased, there was a marked upswing in the handwritten journal entries, the result of which was a number of Moleskine notebooks filled with much of the random prattle that used to appear on here.


Speaking of journaling, I thought I'd post an image of such for everyone's viewing pleasure. This is a shot of my "thematic journal" (which has since been converted to more of a daily journal format) taken earlier this year. The notebook is a Moleskine and the fountain pen a Lamy Safari. Fountain pens were an experiment this year (had never really used one before) and I've become quite enamored with them, though their use has necessitated a modification in my writing style, meaning I've had to write larger than usual. I still use my favorite micro-fine point gel pens from time to time depending on my mood. My biggest gripe about the fountain pen and Moleskine combination is that some inks tend to bleed through the thin paper of the Moleskine journal. While this is frustrating to a point, I do enjoy the experimentation it entails. And the unworkable inks...well...they make good Christmas gifts. :P

On Reading

Back in January I set a goal to read a minimum of 20 books this year. An easily surpassable mark. Or so I though. Well, here we are now in late October and I've managed but a disappointing nine for a total of 2,384 pages read. At this point last year I had read 16 books for a total of 4,516 pages. While there is still time to add to this year's total, the goal of 20 books is too far out of reach at this late point.

There is really no excuse for this failing save for personal indolence in terms of reading. Sure I got bogged down in a couple books (Sir Thoma More's "Utopia" for one), but that hardly accounts for being so far behind schedule. Better luck with this next year.

Back again....

Just a quick note to say that I'm back again after nearly a year away from this thing. More later. Perhaps.....

*dusts off blog*

My how time flies. First it was "oh I'll just write a post tomorrow" to "I don't feel like blogging now, so I'll probably just post next week when I feel more up to the endeavour" to.. what has it been now? Since January? Long enough to forget my password and almost the name of my blog. And I'm also not sure the reason for posting again.

Maybe I'm just bored this afternoon.

Who knows.

Anyone still out there?

Nightly Ritual

A glass of wine and a few quiet moments to record the key events of the day.

What I Got Myself for Christmas

That's right. The Canon Rebel XTi. Sure beats the hell out of my old point and shoot camera.

What I want for Christmas

This is what I want for Chistmas which will hopefully stop whoever keeps breaking into my Jeep from doing so...

The Fever

Ya know, the biggest drawback of working with my travel photos for the Flickr site is that I'm now suffering from an acute case of Travel Fever, the only cure for which is to hop on a plane and go somewhere.

I feel another adventure coming on....

Travel Photos

Hi all. Just wanted to let everyone know that I've set up a Flikr page where I'm posting images from my various travels here and there. It's a work in progress, with photo sets being added when time and motivation allow. Feel free to post comments about the pics should you desire to do so. I'm finding this whole Flikr thing rather the addictive pastime....